The twenty-year journey culminating in this book began with a phone call from Leslie Van Buskirk at Premiere magazine. For that I am forever grateful and, yeah, sometimes resentful. Jim Meigs bet the bank on this—I wish he could’ve stuck around to the end, but who wants to live with Manson that long, except for me? Others at Premiere who kept me on my toes for nearly two years were Kathy Heintzelmen and Anne Thompson.
Without my agent, Sloan Harris of ICM, this book wouldn’t exist. His tenacity and faith—not to mention his extraordinary ability to think outside the box when cancelations, lawsuits, and threats became routine—should be enshrined in the Agentry Hall of Fame. Also life-preserving at ICM were Sloan’s assistants over the years: Kristyn Keene, Heather Karpas, and Alexa Brahme. Kudos, too, to the lawyers who kept me out of jail or, at least, bankruptcy court: John DeLaney and Heather Bushong. And to Rich Green, Michael McCormick, and Will Watkins, who wrangled much-needed sustenance from Hollywood.
At Little, Brown, editor-in-chief Judy Clain went where others before her wouldn’t (or did, then fled). Reagan Arthur bravely put pen to paper, making it real. Their team—Alex Hoopes, Katharine Myers, Alyssa Persons, Ira Boudah, Ben Allen, Trent Duffy, and Lauren Harms—pulled off the amazing feat of producing and publicizing this book. Thanks also to Eric Rayman and Carol Ross, whose close reading safeguarded (hopefully) my future mobility.
When you work on a book for twenty years—examining crimes that occurred decades prior—you lose many of your sources along the way. Among the many who are no longer with us, but who must be acknowledged for excavating memories of a dark, horrifying time, are: Rudi Altobelli, Bill Garretson, Elaine Young, Dominick Dunne, Bill Tennant, Shahrokh Hatami, Richard and Paul Sylbert, Polly Platt, Charles Eastman, Julia Phillips, Denny Doherty, Christopher Jones, Gene Gutowski, and Victor Lownes.
From the law enforcement and legal worlds, and also gone: Charlie Guenther, Paul Whiteley, Bill Gleason, Preston Guillory, Mike and Elsa McGann, Danny Bowser, Paul Caruso, Gerald and Milton Condon, Paul Fitzgerald, Lewis Watnick, Buck Compton, and George Denny.
To thank everyone I interviewed would require dozens of pages—and many of my sources never appear in this book. I’ll limit this list to the ones who endured my inquiries for years, if not decades, and who deserve accolades for their patience.
From the world of Cielo Drive and slightly beyond: Allan Warnick, Gregg Jakobson, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Jim Mitchum, Elke Sommer, Peter Bart, Tanya and Michael Sarne, Corrine Sydney, Joe Torrenueva, Witold Kaczanowski, Sheilah Welles, Joanna Pettet, Bob Lipton, and Mark Lindsay.
From the Beach Boys’ arena, including authors, researchers, and associates of the band: Alan Boyd, Brad Elliot, Karen Lamm, Nick Grillo, Steve Despar, John Parks, David Anderle, Stanley Shapiro, Ryan Oskenberg, and especially Eddie Roach and Jon Stebbins. Richard Barton Campbell, the webmaster of CassElliot.com, was a tremendous help.
Witnesses who testified at the trial or provided information that helped break the case: Virginia Graham, Jerrold Friedman, Harold True, Joe Dorgan, Father Robert Byrne, and Christine and Michael Heger.
The Hinman case: Cookie Marsman, Marie Janisse, Jay Hofstadter, Eric Carlson, John Nicks, Glen David Giardenelli, Glenn Krell, Michael Erwin, Mark Salerno, Jim and Julie Otterstrom.
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office: Bill “Moon” Mullin, Louie Danhof, John C. Graham, Jim White, Harold White, John Kolman, Lee Koury, Tony Palmer, Frank Merriman, Bill McComas, Michael Devereaux, Garland Austin, Gil Parra, Jerome Stern, Frank Salerno, Bob Lindbloom, Beto Kienast, George Grap, Samuel Olmstead, Bob Wachsmuth, Bob Payne, George Smith, Paul Piet, Robert Osborne, Don Dunlop, Paul George, Carlos DeLaFuente, John Sheehan, D. C. Richards, Fred Stemrich, and Donald Neureither. Los Angeles Police Department: Carl Dein, James Vuchsas, Charles Collins, Mike Nielsen, Bob Calkins, Jerry Joe DeRosa, Robert Burbridge, Dudley Varney, Wayne Clayton, Walt Burke, Freddy McKnight, Sidney Nuckles, Danny Galindo, William Lee, Cliff Shepard, Ed Lutes, Ed Meckel, and Edward Davis.
Federal law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s Office: Roger “Frenchie” LaJeunesse, Werner Michel, John Marcello, Rich Gorman, Samuel Barrett, Richard Wood, Bob Lund, Bob Hinerfeld, Timothy Thornton, Gerald O’Neill, and Ray Sherrard. Los Angeles District Attorney’s office: Stephen Kay, Burton Katz, Jeff Jonas, Robert Schirn, Ronald Ross, Anthony Manzella, and John Van de Kamp. Defense attorneys for Manson Family: Irving Kanarek, Gary Fields, Leon Salter, Jeffrey Engler, Deb Fraser, and Rich Pfeiffer.
Los Angeles media: Sandi Gibbons, Mary Neiswender, Pete Noyes, Dick Carlson, and Brent Zackie.
Las Vegas Police Department: Loren Stevens.
San Francisco: David Smith, Roger Smith, Al Rose, Gail Sadalla, Ernest Dernburg, Eugene Schoenfeld, Steve Pittel, Lyle Grosjean, Charles Fischer, John Frykman, Bob Conrich, John Luce, and Joel Fort. Mendocino County: Margo Tomkins, David Mandel, Thomas Martin, and Duncan James.
Inyo County Sheriff’s Department: Jim Bilyeu, Wayne Wolcott, Harry Homsher, Joe Redmond, Alan George, Dave Walizer, Dennis Cox, Ben Anderson, Jerry Hildreth, and Randy Geiger. Inyo County District Attorneys: Art Maillett and Tom Hardy. California Highway Patrol: officers Jim Pursell, Doug Manning, and George Edgerton. Regarding the investigation and capture of the Family in Death Valley, thanks also to former Death Valley National Park superintendent (and author of the indispensable Desert Shadows) Bob Murphy, and Parks Department rangers Homer Leach, Al Schneider, Paul Fodor, Don Carney, and Richard Powell. And thanks to Darlene Ward, the daughter of late Inyo deputy sheriff Don Ward.
The Tenerelli case would’ve remained in the shadows were it not for the invaluable assistance of Bee and Kermit Greer, Robert Denton, and Billy Kriens, the original investigating officer at the Sportsman’s Lodge. A special thank you to Sue Norris, a medical doctor with experience in forensic pathology who provided a detailed analysis of the Tenerelli coroner’s findings. Finally, while I wasn’t able to comfort Filippo’s mother, Caterina, with a final answer about what happened to her son, I hope I have provided some solace to his sisters, Angela, Lucia, Maria, and Chiara, and his nieces and nephews, especially Cosimo Giovane, who has worked so tirelessly to have the cause of death on his uncle’s death certificate changed from “suicide” to “unknown.”
Lastly, in Inyo, a heartfelt expression of gratitude to Paul Dostie, who has committed the last twelve years of his life to searching for the remains of possible unidentified victims of the Manson Family.
My detour into the murky world of government intelligence and covert operations would have been impossible without the pioneering work of previous CHAOS, COINTELPRO, and MKULTRA authors and researchers, many of whom provided guidance, moral support, and files. Among those who offered generous help are Eric Olson, John Marks, Alan Scheflin, Doug Valentine, Dick Russell, Sid Bender, William Turner, Peter Dale Scott, John Judge, Rex Bradford, Larry Hancock, John Kelly, Phil Melanson, Robert Blair Keiser, Shane O’Sullivan, Brad Johnson, Jim DiEugenio, and Rose Lynn Mangan.
Especially helpful in my investigation of Reeve Whitson was his daughter, Liza, and his former wife, Ellen. Likewise, thanks to Cindy Hancock and Margot Silverman for welcoming me into their homes and opening their fathers’ (William Herrmann and Charles Tacot, respectively) files. A big thanks also to Paul LePage Jr. for allowing access to his late father’s files, and to Joseph Boskin, who served on the Riots and Disorders Task Force with William Herrmann and gave me his entire archive on the committee.
I interviewed dozens of Jolly West’s colleagues and associates. I must express gratitude to the few who helped me understand him the most: Elizabeth “Libby” Price, Gilbert Rose, James R. Allen, and Margaret T. Singer, West’s partner in studying the returned prisoners of the Korean War who beseeched me not to publish the West-Gottlieb letters because they’d destroy “all the good research” they’d done “showing how brainwashing and thought reform works.”
I talked to relatives of the doomed airman Jimmy Shaver and his victim, Chere Jo Horton. His sister, Brenda Hoff, shared family secrets with me as well as the absolute conviction that her brother did not wittingly kill Horton.
Thanks to the archivists across the country who endured my unending requests: at the Los Angeles Court of Appeals, Oscar Gonzalez; Los Angeles Superior Court, Mark Hoffman and Don Camera; Federal Bureau of Prisons, Dana Hansen, Ben Kingsley, Traci Billingsly, and Ann Diestel; Federal Parole Office, Pamela Posch and Debbie Terrell; Inyo County District Attorney’s office, Janet and C.J.; University of Nevada Reno, Jacque Sundstrand; National Archives, Greg Badsher, Richard Boylan, Will Mahoney, John Taylor, Fred Romanski, Marjorie Ciralante, Martha Murphy, Marty McGann, Carl Wisenbach, Sam Bouchart, Ken Schlesinger, Rod Ross, Steve Tilley, Ramona Oliver, and Janis Wiggins; National Security Archive, Kevin Symonds; California State Archives, Linda Johnson; and the Special Collections Department of the Charles E. Young Library at UCLA, Charlotte Brown.
Authors who shared information on the Manson case include Ivor Davis, Simon Wells, Greg King, Marlin Maryneck, Barney Hoskyns, and Paul Krassner.
Independent researchers who helped me include Jedidiah Laub-Klein, Tommy Schwab, Jason Majik, Jon Aes-Nihil, John Michael Jones, and Mark Turner. Also Bo Edlund and Glenna Schultz, the proprietors of the best websites on the crimes, CieloDrive.com and TruthOnTateLaBianca.com, respectively. These two case “scholars” often found information I’d long given up on. Their knowledge on the crimes surpasses anyone I’ve encountered in my twenty years researching them.
Helpful members and associates of the Family include Dean Moorehouse, Sherry Cooper, Catherine “Cappie” Gillies, Dianne Lake, Brooks Poston, Paul Crockett, Vern Plumlee, and Barbara Hoyt. There were also those who intersected with the group, including Bob Berry, Bob April, Charlie Melton, Corrine Broskette, Rosina Kroner, and Lee Saunooke.
A host of my friends provided unwavering moral support—not to mention beds, couches, and floors when I turned up in their towns with a car full of files and addresses of local criminals I planned to confront. Among them (the friends, not the criminals) are Jenny Jedeikin, Patricia Harty, Holly Millea, Gail Gilchrist, Greg and Erin Fitzsimmons, Jay Russell, Lee Cunningham, Paul Lyons, Nick Smith, Jaceene Margolin, Jane Campbell, Daisy Foote, Mary Fitzgerald, Bryan Northam, Eileen O’Conner, Elaine DeBuhr, Daina Mileris, Beena Kamlani, Anne McDermott, Sean Jamison, Val Reitman, Kim Stevens, Karla Stevens, Fernando Arreola, Brad Verter, and Liz Heskin. Thanks also to Mike Gibbons (who gave me a car), Jesse Despard (who held forty boxes of my files in her basement for two years), Tim and Kyle Dilworth (basement storage for even more boxes), and Tim Guinee (an actor who roleplayed an antagonist with me in preparation for an interview).
I’ve had the best researchers and tape transcribers, including Jim and Desi Jedeikin, Tanya McClure, Chris Kinker, Tucker Capps, Phil Brier, and Julie Tate. The one who hung in the longest and found out the most is Bob Perkins, a true investigator and an excellent writer.
A few lawyers who provided invaluable support are Joe Weiner, David Feige, Richard Marks, Jessica Friedman, Paul McGuire, and Tim O’Conner. And some filmmakers who briefly journeyed with me as we pursued possible collaborations: Errol Morris, John Marks, and Ken Druckerman.
In 2016, my collaborator, Dan Piepenbring, became the final component to finishing this odyssey, breathing life into my moribund pages, making sense of nonsense, and allowing me to see my findings again, with fresh eyes. For that, I will be forever indebted to the best collaborator an overwhelmed author could have. (Also thanks to Dan’s equally talented agent, Dan Kirschen of ICM.)
But my deepest gratitude is reserved for two people without whose support I never would’ve survived these past twenty years: my father, William, who believed in the project from day one, even when others stopped believing; and my mother, Jean, who outlived him, making our joy at the conclusion bittersweet. My siblings, Bill, Tim, and Ellen, and their spouses and kids, were an enormous source of spiritual, sometimes financial, and (with Tim, particularly) legal sustenance. (Thank God there are three lawyers in my family, and thank God they were determined enough to keep me from moving into their basements to make sure all my contracts were ironclad and my lawsuits settled.)
These acknowledgments would mean nothing without a word of thanks to the people who sacrificed, and continue to sacrifice, the most in this story. The survivors of the victims of the crimes described in these pages have to be reminded, yet again, of pain and trauma that needs no reminding. Their generosity and bravery never fail to humble me. Their grace in the face of such tragedy is a far greater testament to the lives of the loved ones they lost than any book could be.
Thank you to the sister of John Philip Haught, Paula Scott Lowe, and to the mother of Marina Habe, Eloise Hardt, who died in 2017 at age ninety-nine, never knowing who killed her only child, and to Marina’s stepbrother and best friend, Mark McNamara.
And my sincerest gratitude to the survivors of the known victims of the Manson group, who shared their stories with me: Frank Struthers, Suzanne LaBerge, Eva Morel, Janet Parent, and, especially, Anthony DiMaria and Debra Tate.